mango loco

In the last week I have rekindled a love for mangoes. I thought for a long time that I did not love mangoes, and for the most part, I was right. If not eaten when perfectly ripe, they have a pretty nasty aftertaste, or even a fermented bite to them. The strings are always caught in your teeth, and there is no graceful way to polish off this beloved tropical fruit in front of other people. Of course, Hondurans do it all the time, but, lets just say it's not pretty.

There are several varieties of mangoes...the first ones of the season being small, green mangoes. These are peeled and often served with chile sauce (like hot sauce). Let's just say, I've been scared of these for a long time.

Then, later on come the larger, reddish, sweet mangoes. I was not too impressed with them...until my host mom went to visit family in Comayagua who have mango trees on their property. She brought back about 5 buckets full of the sweet, perfectly ripened tropical delicacy, right from the tree!

I ended up downing 2 in about 11 minutes. It was glorious. When a mango is perfectly ripe, there is pretty much no better fruit. I was dripping with juices and getting bits of peel over everything, but it was delightful.
The thing is, even though we live in a country rich in fruits, many are exported, and many others are kind of expensive for the average family...so I get surprisingly minimal variety of fruit in my diet. Sad for me.

My host mom was also giving out mangoes right and left to anyone and everyone who passed by the house. My siblings were freaking out that she would give them all away, but we had so many, they have to be eaten when they are ripe. Because of her generosity, and because she was seen eating a mango at all hours of the day, my older brother started calling Lucia "mango loco" which means "crazy mango" :)